Prides Prejudice
"Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” (Matt 7:3 NASB)
I know if you’ve been a Christian for longer than 24 hours you’ve already heard maybe 100 sermons on this passage right? I’d like to take a different angle with it in this devotional/exhortation…the angle of PRIDE.
Ouch…I’ve already lost half of you right? The thing is there is something fundamentally wrong with me (maybe you can relate)…I am PROUD. So proud that I often find that when I’m critical of someone or an organization, God gently nudges me and asks, “don’t you notice this in yourself?” Later I think how was I so blind to this log (as big as the one pictured)? It's that five letter P-word P R I D E.
If you are the same way or don’t know if you are check out this list of Pride Indicators from a book called Brokenness: A Heart God Revives by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. There are some Broken Indicators too…I’ll post those another time, but I’m gonna go through these again myself. I'll post in comments the ones that God is working on me right now (ie A1, B3, etc) Won’t you join me in being broken enough to confess?
PROUD PEOPLE:
A. ATTITUDE TOWARD OTHERS
- Focus on the failures of others
- A critical, fault-finding spirit; look at everyone else’s faults with a microscope, but their own with a telescope
- Especially prone to criticize those in positions of authority and they talk to others about the faults they see
- Self-righteous; look down on others
- Independent, self-sufficient spirit
- Have to prove that they are right
- Claim rights; have a demanding spirit
- Self-protective of their time, their rights, and their reputation
- Desire to be served
- Desire to be a success
- Have a subconscious feeling, “This ministry/church is privileged to have me and my gifts”; think of what they can do for God
- Desire self-advancement
- Have a drive to be recognized and appreciated
- Wounded when others are promoted and they are overlooked
- Elated by praise and deflated by criticism
- Feel confident in how much they know
- Self-conscious; worry about what others think
- Concerned with being respectable, with what others think; work to protect their own image and reputation
- Can’t bear to fail or have anyone think they are less than perfect.
- Keep others at arms’ length
- Quick to blame others
- Wait for the other to come and ask forgiveness when there is a misunderstanding or conflict in a relationship
- Unapproachable or defensive when criticized
- Find it difficult to share their spiritual need with others
- Try to control the people and the circumstances-prone to manipulate
- Become bitter and resentful when wronged; have emotional temper tantrums; hold grudges; easily offended
- Want to be sure that no one finds out when they have sinned; their instinct is to cover up
- Have a hard time saying, “I was wrong; will you please forgive me?”
- Tend to deal in generalities when confessing sin
- Concerned about the consequences of their sin
- Remorseful over their sin, sorry that they got found out or caught
- Blind to their true heart condition
- Compare themselves with others and feel worthy of honor
- Don’t think they have anything to repent of
- Don’t think they need revival, but are sure that everyone else does
© Revive Our Hearts
Used by permission of Revive Our Hearts
P. O. Box 31
Buchanan, MI 49107
866-842-8381
Marriages Purpose
I normally like to post a picture with these blogs but I couldn't find the one I want. It was a picture of a husband and wife, the husband had a sword in hand and the wife a trowel. A beautiful picture of Nehemiah 4 where Nehemiah had posted families along the wall building with sword in hand. So try to picture that if you can.
I'm often amazed by the verse above, especially when I realized these were the first words God spoke to the first married couple, Adam and Eve. You could say that God was stating the purpose for marriage. Hmmm purpose? What is the purpose of your marriage? Let's see what God's original design was.
I think it is pretty simple to grasp the fruitful part of the statement. We are supposed to have kidos right? Yeah but even further our marriages are supposed to be fruitful...not just birthing and raising physical children but spiritual children as well! That means shining the light of Christ in a lost world as a married couple so that spiritual children will be brought into the world. It also means discipling or counseling younger people and couples to raise spiritual children.
But the subdue part...what does that mean? If you look it up in good ol' Webster you'll find words like conquer, bring under control, tone down in other words bring order where there is messiness. Well what does THAT mean? For Adam and Eve I think it meant naming animals, exploring rivers, maybe even mapping Eden. See God had created the earth but it was less than tame...there was still some work he wanted the first couple to do...bring order.
For us post-fall it becomes even more treacherous. The messiness has become increased and intensified by sin entering the world. The list of messes all around us can be overwhelming at times marital trouble, divorces, fears, illnesses, hunger, homelessness, poverty. It's enough to make most of us hide in our homes and God would say, "subdue the earth".
How can we as Christian married couples "subdue the earth"? Here's a small list to start with:
- Start at home - what messes do you have going in your home? How can we subdue the earth together if we aren't...together. Bring those messes to the Lord and hash it out with your spouse, subdue them! Check out James 4:9-10.
- Share your story - what has God brought you through as a married couple? Share it with others (Christian and non-Christian) as vulnerably as you possibly can praying that God would use your testimony.
- Support each other's gifts - in general men will want to bring organizational order and women will want to bring relational order. Go with that and serve the church, in the workplace, in the neighborhood. All of these places need your gifts!
Truth is as one author said (paraphrase) a marriage is only as good as its purpose. Or in the words of our Lord, "seek first the kingdom of God...and all these things will be added to you." (Mttw 6:33 pz paraphrase) If the purpose for your marriage is the kingdom of God a great deal of our other problems will be taken care of! I know for Linda and I as we focus on the goal of furthering God's kingdom many of the other issues we deal with seem so small.
Subdue the earth couples!
(-adapted from Intimate Allies by Allender & Longman)
Sunday's Desired Outcome
Why do you go to church on Sunday? And I don't mean on Sunday as opposed to Saturday or something. I mean, what should our goal be, so to speak, of going to church? I have come to one conclusion that ties all of the other reasons together: we go (or at least we should) to get a bigger picture of God. That's it.
Think about it. If you are in the middle of the hardest days of your life, what happens when you are reminded through the song lyrics during worship and the reading of the Word, that God is ALL POWERFUL, ALL LOVING, ALL MERCIFUL, ALL HOLY AND ALL KNOWING? Your gloom becomes hope-filled, smaller becomes your all-consuming circumstances, and hope once again reigns in your soul.
Now, if we go for any other reason (such as: to see friends, or to look for a relationship, or simply to go or serve due to a sense of duty or habit), what happens? We leave having the things in our lives just the same as when we came. Men are fallible, foolish and weak. God is always in control, never is stressed or confused, always willing to forgive and is ever-present. If you go to church to hear from a particular leader or pastor, however much he may be gifted, you may be blessed in some manner I suppose. But how much greater the impact when we go to church to see Him! His eyes full of fire, lightening in His face, the voice of the multitudes coming forth like thunder. That is the God who we worship! You cannot take in the sight and not be changed... God is in the midst of us as we gather - what a shame when you or I miss Him when He has made Himself available to be seen. Let's pray that he allows us the privilege this very Sunday!
emerging or re-emerging?
Why I’m Not Emerging:A Brief Response to the Emergent Church By James MacDonald Let me begin with a word of personal appreciation for the current leaders of the emerging church movement. I am deeply grateful for your courage in standing against the many shortcomings of the modern western church. Thanks for insisting that authenticity in relationship is the foundation of genuine Christian community. Thanks for standing against the formulaic/instant Gospel which fills our churches with tares and insulates the human heart from a genuine transformational encounter with the living Christ. Thanks also for daring to believe that failure is not final and that Christ yet longs for His bride to function with the health and wholeness He created it to enjoy. In case you are wondering why my gratitude for the leaders of the emerging church does not translate into enthusiasm for their current emphasis and direction let me take a few words to explain why I am not emerging.
Because observing the bad is not a credential for guiding us to the good Even if every placard-carrying protestor across from the White House has a legitimate complaint, they will not soon be invited to cross the street and participate in governing our nation. The hippies of the late sixties told us that the choice to “make love, not war” would go a long way toward solving society’s ills. We now know however that free love is a fast track to rampant perversion and escalating victimization of the innocent among us. History is replete with proof that those most articulate about our shortcomings are often least able to bring balanced, objective solutions. I resonate deeply with much of the criticism flowing from the emerging church against current western Christianity, but I am deeply grieved to see the emergent remedies accepted so uncritically by those who feel gratified by the accuracy of their critiques. Knowing the soup is bad does not make one a chef. If successful diagnosis was a license to treat the patient every lab technician would be a surgeon . . . scary.
Because God is looking for obedience to revealed truth, not just sincerity I have had numerous interactions and time to personally observe several of the key emerging leaders such as Chris Seay, Carol Childress, Dave Travis, Leonard Sweet, Brian McLaren and Rob Bell. Some I have only spoken with, others I consider to be dear friends, but each that I have been exposed to give strong evidence that they are sincere and genuinely committed to Jesus Christ. If all that Christ asked of us was a gracious, kind demeanor they would be exemplary indeed; however the Lord is asking for much more. In John 14:21 Jesus taught “he who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.” We are expected to obey our Master and to accept His Word without equivocation. Cavalier questioning of the explicit statements of Scripture regarding the necessity of the new birth, the priority of biblical proclamation or the binding authority and sufficiency of Scripture cannot build a stronger, more Christ- honoring church no matter how sincere the messengers. Critiquing the church is good, disregarding or diminishing the revealed truth of our Founder is not good, no matter how ‘nice’ the people are who do it.
Because Christ’s is a kingdom of substance, not style Candles and bells, paintings and sculpture, incense and chanting—great! Let’s bring back the best of all those offerings of worship, but let’s not confuse style and substance. According to Jesus, it’s still truth that sets you free—not artistic expression. Wearing suits and ties is certainly not necessary and it can be contrived and unnatural, but wearing jeans and sandals is not a means to the revealed presence of Christ. John 14:21 teaches that obedience to the substance of Christ’s teaching brings His “manifest presence,” not forms—old or new. In most of these discussions we are simply inserting an ancient-dead form in place of a modern-dead one. The former feels new because it’s so ancient, as in “wow, we lit candles and sat in circles at church—that was so powerful.” Or wait, was it the form that was powerful or just the broken routine that allowed my heart to worship with fresh sincerity? The renewed, ancient forms of worship are powerful if they are offered in spirit and truth and will become just as worthless as they become routine. The power of Christ is not experienced in style, but in heart-felt substance and to miss that point is to set the stage for Emerging Church II when our kids get sick of the currently cool. Style is fun and fresh methods can promote sincerity, but the manifest presence of Christ which is the life of the church comes in response to biblical substance from the heart, not surface adjustments which can quickly become an end in themselves.
Because the answer is Jesus, not cultural analysis. Several times in the past few years we have baptized more than 200 adults in our church in a single weekend. When you listen to so many concurrent stories of conversion to Christ in such a short period of time, you get a clear picture of how it happens. “I was going along thinking I was ‘too sexy for my shirt,’ and God dropped a boulder on my life to break me down and get my attention.” While the label on the boulder may change, the story does not. Bottom line: God uses the painful circumstances of life to soften human hearts and bring people to faith in Christ. In the past few years we have analyzed our culture ad nauseum. Cultures don’t come to Christ, individuals do and the fields are more ripe for harvest than ever before. Our endless discussion of culture has become just an elitist substitute for rolling up our sleeves and getting the Good News to the people who are hurting right now! Baby Boomer, GenX, Postmodern, blah, blah, blah. The discussion itself is modernistic and we’re just talking to ourselves. How about a more compassionate extension of our own life in Christ and please . . . a lot less perpetual babbling about culture, which even when rightly observed is not the answer, duh—Jesus is!
Because Jesus is the purpose for the party, not the surprise hiding in the closet of respectability If you have not traveled to the places in our world where the Gospel of Christ is spreading like wild-fire, I covet that opportunity for you. What you find there is not careful connoisseurs of some Rodeo Drive Jesus, but flag-waving, flame-throwing, on-fire followers of Christ. The power of God’s Spirit is moving because Jesus is experienced, adored and proclaimed in all of His transcendent glory. Why do so many of the emerging church websites speak of God/Father and less overtly or not at all about Jesus Christ the Lord? Claiming to be post modern we are still marketing Jesus and hiding Him in the closet of respectability until we feel like people are ready to handle Him. Jesus can’t be handled and He doesn’t need spin doctors. I know we’re pretty fussy about music forms, but let’s bring back an old chorus, This Little Light of Mine, and in case we’ve forgotten the answer to “hide it under a bushel?” is NO! Anyway . . . I am thankful for the honest and often accurate critiques of current western Christianity flowing from the emerging church movement. I strongly desire to see them show greater promise in the arena of solutions or at least be more open to analysis from outside their community than they have been to date. (Witness the harsh rejection, rather than careful analysis of D.A. Carson’s book, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church on many emergent blogs ) These are some of the factors affecting my decision not to emerge. What I am doing is hoping, praying and spending myself, along with many others, for “revival in the church in America in our lifetime.” The problems in the western church are extreme: legalism or license, dead orthodoxy or compromised consumerism, professional entertainers with pop psychology or angry disregard for the sinful world Jesus weeps for. The western church in our lifetime has become an awful mess, but Jesus is not giving up on her and neither should we. Now hear this: the answer we desperately need is a fresh move of God. We need a renewed vision of God’s exalted, infinite holiness. We need an overwhelming sense of our own pride and personal sinfulness. We need our eyes lifted from the bankruptcy of cultural reflection to the crucified, risen, glorified Christ. There must be a returning to the centrality of the unadorned Gospel and the power of God’s Spirit to redeem, restore and rebuild broken lives. We need men and women on fire with passionate confidence in the power of God’s Word proclaimed; not because pagans say they want it, but because God promises to bless it. In short, what we need, what we desperately need is a renewing work of God that will cut a swath of revival across our land like a tornado across a Kansas wheat field. That’s what we need and nothing else will do. In fact anything else is window dressing. Most urgently I am praying that we will repent and turn from the horizontal, man-centered focus that grieves God’s Spirit and prevents the presence of Christ from emerging more fully in our midst.:: my 2 cents are:: if the current leaders of the church were to remember that the church is NOT about them but rather ALL about God and HIS UNIQUE INTERACTION WITH THOSE WHOM HE HAS "CALLED OUT" OF THIS WORLD, then we would focus far less on commercial advertising (for the record, i don't see the basis of this as bad but it can become a suble form of me, building "my kingdom" and forgetting His) and slick time slotted campaigns and more on loving one another intimatly praying for one-another passionatly and building up each other entirely through GOD'S SACRED WORD. i still go back to the whole purpose of God's leaders/ shephards/ elders/ pastors/priests whatever you want to call them is to just simply be a messanger boy to faithfully, acuratly, teach and communicate HIS WORD, the WHOLE COUNSEL OF GOD! oh, believe me when i say i know that this biblical role is not glamouous. but, until the shephard trades back his armani suit for the dirt stained robe and is flashy silver sword for the wooden staff then god's people will continue looking and searching emerging and re- emerging for someone who can just feed them Jesus.
Baptisms Gift
"Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?" (Acts 8:36b)
Incredibly this is what my son said to me at this river (Well different words but same drift)! And you know what? I almost missed it! When he asked me my first inclination was to laugh it off...really I almost did. Thank God he opened my eyes to see that Joshua was VERY sincere.
So I explained to him that this was a symbol of his old self being buried and he was being lifted up as his new self in Christ. (Joshua had accepted Christ with his mom a couple of years ago.) Also, that this could be a REALLY cool moment between us but he would need to be publicly baptized at some point at a CalvarySLO baptism.
I asked him if he understood all of this and he said he did. So, right where I'm standing in that picture I crossed his arms, plugged his nose, and baptized him in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then he went on playing in the water...and I was left in complete astonishment before my heavenly Father. I'm still in shock!
When we got back home from that campout one of the first things Joshua did was to recite almost word for word the definition of baptism I game him to my wife, his mom. Linda and I looked at each other with tears welling up in our eyes...and I almost missed it!
A lesson from John's desert ministry
I was just reading this morning about John’s words that he wasn’t worthy to loosen Jesus’ sandal. This floors me when I consider that he was willing to eat bugs with honey and live alone in the desert to preach a straightforward message about the judgment of God and His Lamb. If there was someone ‘worthy’ who gave up every luxury in order to obey the Lord’s call, it was John the Baptist.
Who am I, and what have I given for Jesus that compares? Nothing. So… could I be found worthy to do a simple slave task for Jesus? Would I qualify to serve Him so to speak? No. No one can, so here’s the encouraging part: Jesus doesn’t hold out his foot and have John loosen it, but totally blows John away and has him baptize Jesus instead! What in the world? How John must have tripped out on Jesus and the Father that day at his love and grace (undeserved blessing)! And the blessing didn’t come with a ‘alright John, your time in the desert is over’, or, ‘now let’s get you fed on some real food’, but the blessing came in God allowing John to serve His Son Jesus. The greatest blessing is to be chosen. So are we. We don’t deserve it, we don’t fill out a resume complete with a list of everything we’ve sacrificed for Him, in order for Him to choose us, etc. He just lifts our chin from His holy foot and invites us to participate in much greater ways than loosening his sandal. We get to be His hands and feet and serve Him and our neighbor!
May this remind you that we are most blessed when we realize that the greatest blessing there is in life is to be chosen by the Father. This perspective makes involvement in a ministry a privilege and not a burden. We have been saved by faith, and that not of ourselves. So it is with our ministries…
Temptations Lie
And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. (Gen 25:34)
Cup O' Noodles man that stuff is good isn't it? That's what Esau thought when he sold his birthright for some soup and crackers!
Picture the scene with me if you will. Esau comes in all hairy, sweaty, and hungry. He smells Jacob's lunch and says, "gimme some of that soup." Jacob, the heel catcher who knows his brother all too well, thinks this is my chance to get the birthright. For those of us that don't use the word birthright every day here's a definition "As first-born he has an inheritance superior to his brethren, and is the alone true priest." Jacob is vying for the double portion of inheritance (wealth) and the priesthood (seat of honor) of the family.
Esau in an aweful fleshly state says, "What good is my birthright if I starve to death." Then procedes as the verse above states to eat the soup giving up all that the birthright entails...all for some Cup O' Noodle soup! Sounds pretty ridiculous doesn't it? Especially since their father was pretty darn rich. What was going on in his hairy head? What was he possibly thinking? I don't know!
What I do know is you and I are no different. We've been given a tremendous birthright as children, friends, and ambassadors of the living God. And just like Esau we give it up for something as cheap and measly as a cup of soup. What are the temptations you are facing day in and day out? Lust, fearfulness, gluttony, uncontrolled anger...I face these. Let's learn from Esau's mistakes.
- Let's look at the temptation for what it is: completely worthless compared to our inheritance (Soup vs. Isaac's wealth, A moments pleasure vs. Abundant life).
- In the face of temptation don't overreact. I think we all have that moment where we think what good is my inheritance if I can't [fill in the blank]. Take a moment and think about #1 above (weigh inheritance vs. the temptation).
- Esau was weary. Earlier in the story the Bible says he came in from the fields and was weary. He was ripe for falling to temptation, let's not be. Do whatever it takes not to be spiritually weary.
Our choices define us. I want to be defined as a friend of God, co-laborer with him for the Kingdom, and a good and faithful servant. I can't be any of those as long as I'm defined as lustful, fearful, glutton, angry. They are in complete antithesis. So remember next time you are tempted it's just Cup O' Noodle soup!